Man pleads guilty to killing Kentucky couple. Should cops pay for fatal chase crash?
A 29-year-old man has pleaded guilty to two murder charges after he killed people in a crash outside a Northern Kentucky restaurant while fleeing police, according to court records.
Now a court will determine if police should pay for the deaths of a Kentucky woman and her husband struck during the chase. Their surviving son argues officers should have stopped the dangerous pursuit. He and two people who were injured in the crash have filed a lawsuit against police officers, the city of Cincinnati and the driver, Mason Meyer, over the deaths and injuries caused in the crash.
After pleading guilty Monday, Meyer still faces federal charges for allegedly being involved in a narcotics conspiracy. Police were chasing him after investigating him for firearm and drug trafficking.
The fatal crash happened on Aug. 7, 2020, after the ATF conducted surveillance on a Cincinnati home which Meyer was known to frequent. Agents saw Meyer’s girlfriend, Kirsten Johnson, loading “unknown items” into the trunk of a Ford Focus outside the home, according to a federal affidavit.
Law enforcement later watched Meyer conduct an alleged gun sale, according to the affidavit. A gun case was loaded into the back seat of the Ford Focus by an unidentified male. The Ford Focus left the house with Meyer driving, according to court records.
Agents asked uniformed Cincinnati police officers to pull Meyer over, but Meyer took off with law enforcement in pursuit.
The chase traveled from Cincinnati into Kentucky, with Meyer veering into oncoming traffic to try to avoid arrest, according to court records. Police drove into oncoming traffic, too. The chase ended when Meyer crashed into the outdoor dining area of a restaurant in Newport, according to court records.
The crash killed Raymond and Gayle Laible, according to court records. It also injured Steven and Maribeth Klein.
Meyer, Johnson and a passenger named Vance Bailey were taken into custody by Cincinnati police and federal agents.
After the crash, investigators found two handguns — which were cocked and “ready-to-fire” — in Meyer’s car, according to federal court records. They also found 78 grams of suspected crystal meth, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.
Victims’ family: Police should have stopped the chase
The lawsuit filed against Meyer and police accuses law enforcement of “flagrantly and knowingly” violating safety rules put into place by the Cincinnati Police Department.
Cincinnati police officers are directed to stop a pursuit when “the level of danger to officers, suspects, or bystanders created by the pursuit outweighs the necessity for immediate apprehension, or when the suspect is identified so that he may be apprehended at a later time,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleges the officers drove at high speeds for several miles, crossing state lines. Screenshots of police footage filed into federal court showed that Meyer and pursuing officers drove the wrong way into oncoming traffic during the chase.
“Officers chose to continue the high-speed pursuit for approximately seven minutes, despite causing at least one interstate crash and nearly causing a head-on collision with a motorcyclist as the pursuit continued through the urban, congested streets and highways” of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.
“Police pursuits are known to be extraordinarily dangerous because they often put the officers, the suspect, and the general public at risk,” attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks damages for wrongful death, personal injury and negligence.
The lawsuit specifically names law enforcement officers Timothy Lanter, Brett Thomas and Donald Scalf as defendants. Lanter, Scalf and Thomas were either working for a federal agency or working at the direction of federal agents at the time of the crash, according to federal court records.
The owner of the car Meyer was driving, Austin Lagory, and Travelers Insurance have also been named in the lawsuit.
Police records: Meyer would ‘die before returning to jail’
Law enforcement believed Meyer was liable to resist arrest by any means necessary, according to investigation records. At the time of the crash, he was being investigated by the ATF, the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force Unit and the Cincinnati Police Department’s Gang Unit and Organized Crime Investigative Squad.
“Meyer was extremely violent, repeatedly threatened to shoot police and others, and held firearms to the heads of people who owed him money for drugs,” law enforcement wrote in Cincinnati Police Department records, which were filed into federal court.
Court records indicated the investigation into Meyer started in July 2020, one month prior to the crash. Police believed Meyer “had little concern for life” because he had a terminal illness — an inoperable tumor, according to court records. But northern Kentucky prosecutors have since clarified that Meyer didn’t have a tumor.
He allegedly bragged about killing a man and kidnapping and assaulting people, according to court records.
“Meyer had no intention of being arrested; he would shoot at police and die before returning to jail,” police wrote in the investigative records.
After the fatal crash, Meyer and his girlfriend were two of 14 people charged in the federal narcotics conspiracy case.
The city of Cincinnati and the officers named in the lawsuit asked the court to dismiss the case because the officers were working in a federal capacity. The victims should have sued the federal government rather than the city and individual officers, the defendants argued in court records. A ruling hasn’t been made.
Meyer pleaded guilty in Campbell County court to the murder counts plus two counts of wanton endangerment, fleeing police, criminal mischief and possessing a handgun as a convicted felon. Other charges against him were dismissed. Meyer is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 23, according to court records.
This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 12:10 PM.
CORRECTION: Mason Meyer is 29 years old. This information was incorrect in a previous version of this story.